Gibson Center adds mobile unit for mental health services

A converted recreational vehicle, tailored for mental health services, was delivered to the Gibson Center for Behavioral Change in Cape Girardeau last week. The mobile unit will be dispatched to rural Southeast Missourians who have little or no access to mental health services.

Ryan Essex, chief operating officer for Gibson Center, said the mobile unit will be staffed with behavioral health counselors, case managers and peer specialists. He said the unit has a waiting room, offices for private sessions and a telehealth station where people can speak via video chat to counselors and other medical staff at the Gibson Center headquarters in Cape Girardeau.

"We don't have offices in places like Morley, Delta or Scott City," Essex said. "So, we see this as an opportunity for us to connect all of our offices together via this mobile service."

Essex said they are still in the process of equipping the unit and hope to send it out in the next few weeks.

There will be a ribbon-cutting for the mobile unit Wednesday, May 10, at the Gibson Center for Behavioral Change, 1112 Linden St. in Cape Girardeau.